Unearthed essay on alien life reveals Churchill the scientist

By Ben Hirschler

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO: An alien world just two-thirds the size of Earth - one of the smallest on record - detected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is seen in this NASA artist's illustration released by NASA on July 18, 2012. REUTERS/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - A newly unearthed essay by Winston Churchill shows Britain's wartime leader was uncannily prescient about the possibility of alien life on planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.

 

The 11-page article was drafted on the eve of World War Two in 1939 and updated in the 1950s, decades before astronomers discovered the first extrasolar planets in the 1990s.

 

Yet Churchill pinpointed issues dominating today's debate about extraterrestrial life, proving that the former prime minister "reasoned like a scientist", according to an analysis of his work published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

 

The hunt for life on other worlds has taken off in the last 20 years as observations have suggested the Milky Way alone may contain more than a billion Earth-size planets that could be habitable.

 

Churchill was already thinking along similar lines nearly 80 years ago, writing that "with hundreds of thousands of nebulae, each containing thousands of millions of suns, the odds are enormous that there must be immense numbers which possess planets whose circumstances would not render life impossible".

 

He also honed in on the importance of liquid water for life, saying that a suitable planet would have to be "between a few degrees of frost and the boiling point of water".

 

Modern scientists are busier than ever looking for signs of life in such environments, both in our own solar system and in the wider universe. So far they have found nothing.

 

Churchill's essay was probably intended as a popular science piece for a newspaper, although it never appeared in print. The famous polymath had already written similar science articles for newspapers and magazines, including one on fusion power in 1931.

 

The type-written essay entitled 'Are We Alone in the Universe?', was uncovered last year in the archives of the U.S. National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri, and passed to astrophysicist Mario Livio for expert examination.

 

In his analysis in Nature, Livio praised Churchill's clear thinking, as well as his support for science as a tool of government policy. Churchill was the first prime minister to employ a science adviser.

 

"At a time when a number of today’s politicians shun science, I find it moving to recall a leader who engaged with it so profoundly," Livio wrote.

 

Churchill's vision of life on Earth in the first half of the 20th century, however, was far from rosy.

 

"I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that we are the highest type of mental and physical development which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space and time."

 

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-16

If only we had such great statesmen living today rather than the bunch of 3rd-rate toadies we have the misfortune to govern us now.

Sent from my SM-J710F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

Great statesman? You are probably not of Bengali descent, are you?

 

"In the sixteenth century the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, an early supporter of the Copernican theory that Earth and other planets orbit the Sun (heliocentrism), put forward the view that the fixed stars are similar to the Sun and are likewise accompanied by planets."

 

"This space we declare to be infinite... In it are an infinity of worlds of the same kind as our own."
— Giordano Bruno (1584)[2

 

Aliens live among us. Most of them are working in the Thai government.

55 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

Great statesman? You are probably not of Bengali descent, are you?

You don't know what a statesman is do you

When Trump hears about Churchill's scientific musings, he might remove Churchill's bust from the Oval Office.

22 minutes ago, thai3 said:

You don't know what a statesman is do you

If you have the courtesy to allow me to have an opinion. Quotes like this:

 

“I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.”                                                                                                                                  -Winston Churchill

and deeds like this:

http://yourstory.com/2014/08/bengal-famine-genocide/

are substantially different from what I expect from a "great statesman".

 

39 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

If you have the courtesy to allow me to have an opinion. Quotes like this:

 

“I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.”                                                                                                                                  -Winston Churchill

and deeds like this:

 

http://yourstory.com/2014/08/bengal-famine-genocide/

are substantially different from what I expect from a "great statesman".

 

And before the Raj your own warlords were doing a lot worse than this. You can have your opinion but Churchill was a great statesman - FACT. 

6 minutes ago, Lokie said:

And before the Raj your own warlords were doing a lot worse than this. You can have your opinion but Churchill was a great statesman - FACT. 

No, he was a great wartime PM. And a great writer. And a brilliant guy. But in peacetime he was a disaster.

4 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

No, he was a great wartime PM.

Not if you were an Australian soldier sent to Galipoli.

An awful lot of opinion and very few facts!

5 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

Not if you were an Australian soldier sent to Galipoli.

Well, he wasn't PM then.

He was unarguably a great orator and wordsmith!

 

This is one of my favourite quotes: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes."
 

 

 

48 minutes ago, onthesoi said:

He was unarguably a great orator and wordsmith!

 

This is one of my favourite quotes: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes."
 

 

 

Hitler loved that one, too.

57 minutes ago, onthesoi said:

He was unarguably a great orator and wordsmith!

 

This is one of my favourite quotes: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes."
 

 

 

Did he really say that??  It wouldn't suprise me particularly, but its the first time I've heard it.

" He also honed in on the importance of liquid water for life, saying that a suitable planet would have to be "between a few degrees of frost and the boiling point of water".

 

I thought (but could well be wrong) that scientists have now found sea creatures living in conditions previously considered incapable of life?  i.e. boiling, poisonous water?

16 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Well, he wasn't PM then.

Was he the Defence Minister or Secretary

On 2/16/2017 at 9:40 AM, GreasyFingers said:

Not if you were an Australian soldier sent to Galipoli.

With no disrespect to the ANZACS, was not just them who were sent there, my own grandfather as part of the British Army's Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was wounded there (buried alive under shell fire) his army record shows on extraction he was unconscious with severe wounds to his legs and lower torso, aged just 20. One of the lucky ones, it was a 'Blighty' wound and he was sent via Egypt/Malta back to UK and eventually discharged from the army under Kings Regulation XVI (unfit for war service) he served with the King's Border Regiment, as part of the 19th Division (I would probably not exist if this had not happened)

2 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

Was he the Defence Minister or Secretary

He was First Lord of the Admiralty;

 

Basically the plan was to attack the Boche from the soft underbelly (Turkey) and open up another front, if successful this would have ended the war earlier, history tells us it was a complete disaster for the allies, eventually having to retreat for no gain what so ever. Turks having high ground and well dug in rained down shell and machine gun fire on the allied forces.

Alien life?

 

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